Architectural Patterns. Layers: Pattern. Architectural Pattern Examples. Layer 3. Component 3.1. Layer 2. Component 2.1 Component 2.2.

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1 Architectural Patterns Architectural Patterns Dr. James A. Bednar Dr. David Robertson The fundamental problem to be solved with a large system is how to break it into chunks manageable for human programmers to understand, implement, and maintain. Large-scale patterns for this purpose are called architectural patterns. Architectural patterns are related to design patterns, but higher level and larger scale. See Buschmann et al. (1996), chapter 2 for more details. SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 1 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 2 Architectural Pattern Examples High level decompositions: Layers Pipes and filters Blackboard Distributed systems: Broker Interactive systems: Model-view-controller Presentation-abstraction-control Adaptable/reusable systems: Microkernel Scripted components Layers: Pattern Layer 3 Component 3.1 Layer 2 Component 2.1 Component 2.2 Layer 1 Component 1.1 Component 1.2 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 3 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 4

2 Layers: Problem System has different levels of abstraction Typical: Requests go down, notification goes back up It is possible to define stable interfaces between layers Want to be able to change or add layers over time Layers: Solution Start with the lowest level Build higher layers on top Same level of abstraction within a layer No component spreads over two layers Try to keep lower layers leaner Specify interfaces for each layer Try to handle errors at lowest layer possible SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 5 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 6 Layers: Example (TCP/IP) Layers: Advantages FTP TCP IP Ethernet FTP TCP IP Ethernet Reuse of layers Standardization of tasks and interfaces Only local dependencies between layers Programmers and users can ignore other layers Different programming teams can handle each layer physical connection SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 7 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 8

3 Layers: Liabilities Pipes and Filters: Pattern Cascades of changing behavior Lower efficiency of data transfer Difficult to choose granularity of layers Difficult to understand entire system When processing a stream of data, each processing step is done by a filter and the filters are connected by pipes carrying data. Connecting filters in different combinations gives different ways of processing the data streams. SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 9 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 10 Pipes and Filters: Problem Data stream processing which naturally subdivides into stages May want to recombine stages Non-adjacent stages don t share information May desire different stages to be on different processors Helpful: Standardized data structure between stages Pipes and Filters: Solution Filter may consume/deliver data incrementally Filters may be parameterisable (e.g. UNIX filters) Input from data source (e.g. a fil e) Output to a data sink Sequence of filters from source to sink gives a processing pipeline SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 11 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 12

4 Pipes and Filters: Example Lexical analysis Pipes and Filters: Advantages Pipes remove need for intermediate files Symbol table Syntax analysis Semantics analysis Intermediate code generation Can replace filters easily Can achieve different effects by recombination (increases long-term usefulness) If data stream has a standard format, filters can be developed independently Incremental filters allow parallelization SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 13 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 14 Pipes and Filters: Liabilities Difficult to share global data Parallelization is less useful than may seem Expensive if there are many small filters and a high data transfer cost Difficult to know what to do with errors (especially if filters are incremental) Blackboard: Pattern A central, blackboard data store is used to describe a partial solution to a problem. A variety of knowledge sources are available to work on parts of the problem and these may communicate only with the blackboard, reading the current partial solution or suggesting modifications to it via a control component. SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 15 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 16

5 Blackboard: Problem Immature or poorly specified domain No deterministic or optimal solution known for problem Solutions to different parts of problem may require different representational paradigms May be no fix ed strategy for combining contributions of different problem solvers May need to work with uncertain knowledge Blackboard: Solution Problem solvers work independently (and opportunistically) on parts of the problem Share a common data structure (the blackboard) A central controller manages access to the blackboard The blackboard may be structured (e.g. into levels of abstraction) so problem solvers may work at different levels Blackboard contains original input and/or partial solutions SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 17 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 18 Blackboard: Example Blackboard: Advantages Phrase creation Word creation Segmentation Allows problem solvers to be developed independently Controller Phrase1...Phrase2... Blackboard Word1...Word2...Word3...Word4... S1...S2...S3...S4...S5...S6...S7...S8...S9... Easy (within limits) to experiment with different problem solvers and control heuristics System may (within limits) be tolerant to broken problem solvers, which result in incorrect partial solutions SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 19 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 20

6 Blackboard: Liabilities Difficult to test Difficult to guarantee an optimum solution Control strategy often heuristic May be computationally expensive Broker: Pattern Decoupled components interact through remote service invocations. Communication is coordinated by a broker component which does things like forwarding requests and relaying results. Parallelism possible but in practice we need much synchronization SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 21 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 22 Broker: Problem Large scale system where scaling to many components is an issue Components must be decoupled and distributed Services required for adding, removing, activating, locating components at run time Designers of individual components should not need to know about the others Broker: Solution Use brokers to mediate between clients and servers Clients send requests to a broker Brokers locate appropriate servers; forward requests; and relay results back to clients May have client-side and/or server-side proxies SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 23 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 24

7 Broker: Example CORBA: Common Object Request Broker Architecture (e.g. JADE) OLE/DCOM/Active X Multi-agent systems are often coordinated through brokers such as JADE that provide a standard mechanism for relaying messages, based on a high-level communication protocol. Broker: Advantages Components can be developed independently Location transparency Components easily adapted Broker easily adapted Individual agents may be implemented in any language as long as they can input/output according to the protocol. SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 25 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 26 Broker: Liabilities Low fault tolerance Limited efficiency (high communications cost) Difficult to test Model-View-Controller: Pattern Interactive system arranged around a model of the core functionality and data. View components present views of the model to the user. Controller components accept user input events and translate these to appropriate requests to views and/or model. A change propagation mechanism takes care of propagation of changes to the model. SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 27 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 28

8 M-V-C: Problem User interfaces attract many change requests over time Different users ask for different changes User interface technologies change rapidly You may want to support different look and feel standards Important core code can be separated from the interfaces M-V-C: Solution Develop a core model which is independent of style of input/output Define different views needed for parts/whole model Each view component retrieves data from the model and displays it Each view component has an associated controller component to handle events from users The model component notifie s all appropriate view components whenever its data changes SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 29 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 30 M-V-C: Example M-V-C: Advantages Spreadsheet Labour: 60% Tory: 30% Lib.Dem: 10% Controller Model Multiple views of the same model View synchronization View components can be plugged in Changes to interfaces without touching the model Pie chart Bar chart Views SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 31 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 32

9 M-V-C: Liabilities Too complex for simple interface problems Frequent events may strain simple change propagation mechanisms Views and controllers aren t modular in practice Changing the model is expensive if there are many views Presentation-Abstraction-Control: Pattern A system implemented as a hierarchy of cooperating agents. Each agent is responsible for a specific aspect of functionality, and consists of: A presentation component responsible for its visible behaviour An abstraction component which maintains the data model for the agent A control component which determines the dynamics of agent operation and communication SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 33 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 34 P-A-C: Problem Interactive system viewed as a set of cooperating agents, often developed independently Some agents specialize in HCI; others maintain data; others deal with error handling, etc. Some notion of levels of responsibility in the system Changes to individual agents should not affect the whole system P-A-C: Solution Define top-level agent with core functionality and data model, to coordinate the other agents and (possibly) also coordinate user interaction Define bottom-level agents for specific, primitive semantic concepts and/or services in the application domain Connect top and bottom levels via intermediate agents which supply data to groups of lower level agents For each agent separate core functionality from HCI SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 35 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 36

10 P-A-C: Example Information system for political elections, with: Spreadsheet for entering data Various tables and charts for presenting current standings Users interact through graphical interface but different versions exist for different user needs Top-level agent holds data repository Different bottom-level agents for different types of charting, analysis and error handling Intermediate agent to coordinate views of system P-A-C: Advantages Separation of different concepts as individual agents that can be maintained separately Changes to presentation or abstraction in an agent doesn t affect other agents Easy to integrate/replace agents Suits multi-tasking Suits multi-user applications SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 37 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 38 P-A-C: Liabilities Can have too many, too simple bottom-level agents Can be difficult to get control right while maintaining independence of agents Long chains of communication may be inefficient Microkernel: Pattern For systems which must be easily adaptable to changing requirements, separate minimal functional core from extended functionality and customer-specific parts. Provide sockets in the microkernel for plugging in these extensions and coordinating them. SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 39 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 40

11 Microkernel: Problem Software systems with long life spans must evolve as their environment evolves Such systems must be adaptable to changes in existing platforms and must be portable to new platforms There may be a large number of different but similar platforms To conform with standards on different platforms it may be necessary to build emulators on top of the core functionality Thus the core should be small Microkernel: Solution Build a microkernel component which encapsulates all the fundamental services of your application The microkernel: Maintains system-wide resources (e.g. files) Enables other components to communicate Allows other components to access its functionality External servers implement their own view of the microkernel, using the mechanisms available from the microkernel Clients communicate with external servers using the communication facilities of the microkernel SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 41 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 42 Microkernel: Example Microkernel: Advantages Operating system for desktop computers: Must be portable to relevant hardware platforms and adapt as these evolve. Must be able to run applications developed for other established operating systems e.g., users could choose which OS from a menu. Each of these OSs is built as an external server on top of the microkernel. Porting to a new environment normally doesn t need changes to external servers or clients Thus external servers or clients can be maintained independently of kernel Can extend by adding new external servers Can distribute the microkernel to several machines, increasing availability and fault tolerance SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 43 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 44

12 Microkernel: Liabilities Summary Performance overhead in having multiple views of system May be difficult to predict which basic mechanisms should be in the microkernel Architectural patterns allow systems to be broken into chunks that can be developed (to some degree) and maintained independently These patterns support large-scale, long-term development and maintenance Not a recipe, just an approach Next lecture: Scripted components architectural pattern SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 45 SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 46 References Buschmann, F., Meunier, R., Rohnert, H., Sommerlad, P., & Stal, M. (1996). Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture: A System of Patterns. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. SAPM Spring 2006: Architecture 46